Nov. 25, 2024

Replay: GREETINGS FROM…Jim Rotolo of E Street Radio

Replay: GREETINGS FROM…Jim Rotolo of E Street Radio
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Season 5

Hustle, reinvention, and a love of music define how Jim Rotolo became a favorite voice of Bruce Springsteen’s passionate fan community. In this special Holiday Replay edition of No Wrong Choices, we revisit our conversation with Jim, tracing his inspiring career journey through the twists and turns of the radio industry to becoming a key figure at SiriusXM’s E Street Radio.

Jim’s path was far from easy—he navigated the ups and downs of the industry with persistence, creativity, and an unwavering commitment to his dream. During times of reinvention, he even took on jobs like bartending to pay the bills, all while laying the groundwork for what would become a thriving career. Along the way, he built a vibrant fan community and created The Wild and the Innocent, a radio show that has connected Springsteen lovers across the globe.

Whether you’re a Springsteen fanatic or someone seeking inspiration for your own career, this episode offers an unforgettable story of resilience, creativity, and following your passion.


To discover more episodes or connect with us:


Chapters

00:02 - Jim Ritolo's Rock Radio Career

11:19 - Radio Career Success and Opportunities

22:57 - Men's Talk Radio Transformation

35:07 - Content Vision for E Street Radio

39:18 - Jim Ritolo's Radio Career Reflection

48:16 - Personal Growth in Broadcasting Culture

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:02.725 --> 00:00:08.034
How does somebody become the voice and, in many ways, the glue for a passionate rock and roll fan base?

00:00:08.034 --> 00:00:16.254
We'll uncover the answer to that and much more, in this special holiday replay edition of no Wrong Choices the Career Journey podcast.

00:00:16.254 --> 00:00:21.751
I'm Larry Samuels, soon to be joined by my co-hosts Tushar Saxena and Larry Shea.

00:00:21.751 --> 00:00:28.926
Before we kick off, I have one request If you enjoy what you're about to hear, please follow and like our show.

00:00:28.926 --> 00:00:32.822
It really helps us grow and to keep bringing these great stories forward.

00:00:32.822 --> 00:00:37.890
Now here's our original episode from January 26th 2023.

00:00:37.890 --> 00:00:48.695
Joining us on today's episode is a talk show host, dj, producer and leading voice of Sirius XM's E Street Radio, Jim Rotolo.

00:00:48.695 --> 00:01:01.033
As you know, typically this is where I throw the conversation to either Larry or Tushar, but as the resident Springsteen fanatic on this podcast, I'm going to keep the microphone for a moment.

00:01:01.052 --> 00:01:03.537
I take some offense to that With no offense to that whatsoever.

00:01:03.679 --> 00:01:05.251
I take some offense to that With no offense to that whatsoever, I take none.

00:01:05.156 --> 00:01:25.299
So you know, to me this is a meaningful conversation and one that I've really wanted to have, because I've been listening to E Street Nation or E Street Radio for years and I've really enjoyed Jim's work and he does such a great job interviewing people and digging into so many great things tied to Bruce Springsteen.

00:01:25.299 --> 00:01:28.771
But the thing that I haven't heard is his story.

00:01:28.771 --> 00:01:36.472
So this to me felt like a wonderful opportunity to bring Jim out there a little bit out front, so we get to know him a little bit better.

00:01:37.079 --> 00:01:41.587
And look, of the three of us, I am the only one who actually lives in Jersey.

00:01:41.587 --> 00:01:43.992
I was born, I was, you know, bred.

00:01:43.992 --> 00:01:45.995
I was raised here in Jersey.

00:01:45.995 --> 00:01:51.772
I was raised here in New Jersey, so it goes without saying that Bruce is in the blood.

00:01:51.772 --> 00:01:53.743
Now, I'll grant you, I am not.

00:01:53.743 --> 00:01:56.590
I am not as big a fan as you are you are.

00:01:56.590 --> 00:01:58.192
You are an Uber super fan.

00:01:58.192 --> 00:02:02.846
I am a fan of Bruce Springsteen and, look, it's part of it's part of the resume.

00:02:02.846 --> 00:02:04.808
If you live here in Jersey, it's part of the job description.

00:02:04.808 --> 00:02:05.771
You got to be a fan of Bruce.

00:02:05.771 --> 00:02:12.149
But, with that being said, the other thing I'm a big fan of is Jim Rotolo, because Jim is a radio guy.

00:02:12.149 --> 00:02:16.481
Radio guys love other radio guys and love to have that story.

00:02:16.481 --> 00:02:19.594
It's all about the war stories when it comes to radio people.

00:02:19.594 --> 00:02:23.605
So I'm really looking forward to getting some of Jimmy's backstory because I've known him since Sirius.

00:02:23.605 --> 00:02:26.812
But I got to be honest, I don't know much of Jim's story prior to Sirius.

00:02:27.281 --> 00:02:29.729
Yeah, I'm also a big, big fan of Jim Rotolo.

00:02:29.729 --> 00:02:33.439
I mean, I still work at Sirius and so does Jim, so we're colleagues still.

00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:39.813
But one of the things that's happened because of the pandemic is we're not going into the office and seeing each other anymore, you know.

00:02:39.813 --> 00:02:52.400
So I used to bump into Jim in the hallways and and it was never a two minute conversation we would always, you know, hang out and talk about his Raiders or my Buffalo bills or whatever, and just he's one of the good guys in the business.

00:02:52.400 --> 00:02:53.383
Like you said to.

00:02:53.383 --> 00:03:04.626
You know, he's just a great guy and we did a show together and I'm hoping it comes up because I was really proud of the show that we did together guys, uncensored, um, and it was a lot of fun to do it.

00:03:04.626 --> 00:03:07.584
And he's just, you meet a lot of people in this business.

00:03:07.584 --> 00:03:12.104
Jim's one of the good guys and it's going to be super great to catch up with him, for sure.

00:03:12.185 --> 00:03:13.950
Well, here's one of the good guys.

00:03:13.950 --> 00:03:23.033
Jim Rotolo, now joining no Wrong Choices, is a talk show host, dj producer and leading voice of Sirius XM's E Street Radio.

00:03:23.033 --> 00:03:26.727
I'm of course referring to Jim Rotolo.

00:03:26.747 --> 00:03:27.474
Jim, thank you so much for joining us.

00:03:27.474 --> 00:03:27.737
Thanks, guys.

00:03:27.777 --> 00:03:32.965
Pleasure to be here, hey, Jim, I've had this is too short, Jim I've had the opportunity to know you for a long time.

00:03:34.082 --> 00:03:36.000
And like all old radio people.

00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:39.772
We love to talk war stories and you and I probably talk more than our fair share.

00:03:39.772 --> 00:03:44.147
At whatever local bar we had a chance to sit down and share a couple of drinks.

00:03:44.147 --> 00:03:48.115
Now, obviously you're a big shot over at E Street Radio.

00:03:48.115 --> 00:03:53.007
But I'll say this I don't know a great deal of your backstories.

00:03:53.007 --> 00:03:58.991
To be honest with you, I'd love to know, much like a lot of us, how you got in the business.

00:03:58.991 --> 00:04:00.164
Where was your start in radio?

00:04:01.020 --> 00:04:11.475
So, I started at the hot rock and flame Throwin' Z100 in New York City the top 40 station as a phone screener.

00:04:11.475 --> 00:04:23.658
It was a part-time phone screener, shift at night and I was answering request lines and then also phone screening for Love Phones, which was, if you guys remember What- year was that.

00:04:23.658 --> 00:04:27.672
That was 95, 94, late, late, 94.

00:04:27.672 --> 00:04:29.788
I started in December of 94.

00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:31.605
So you met Carolla and all that stuff?

00:04:31.639 --> 00:04:32.807
No, that's a different show.

00:04:32.807 --> 00:04:34.660
That's the funny thing People confuse.

00:04:34.660 --> 00:04:38.709
There was Adam Carolla and Dr Drew did Love Line in.

00:04:38.870 --> 00:04:40.461
LA Love Line okay In New.

00:04:40.521 --> 00:04:41.182
York City.

00:04:41.182 --> 00:04:49.463
There was Love Phones with Dr Judy Kuriansky and Chris Jagger, and that was what I was part of.

00:04:49.985 --> 00:04:50.848
I do remember that one.

00:04:50.848 --> 00:04:51.589
I do remember that one.

00:04:51.629 --> 00:04:55.230
Okay, and so wait you were a call screener for this.

00:04:55.230 --> 00:04:56.980
And what is the show about?

00:04:56.980 --> 00:05:02.432
It was about love connections and problems with relationships and things like that.

00:05:02.432 --> 00:05:03.153
What are we talking about?

00:05:04.264 --> 00:05:06.050
It was love, sex and relationships.

00:05:06.050 --> 00:05:08.581
Yeah, that's what it was, and I was screening the call.

00:05:08.581 --> 00:05:19.940
So I was on the front lines like listening to these people tell all these stories and you know some of them were fake, of course, but you know my job was to figure out, make good radio.

00:05:19.940 --> 00:05:22.045
You know I don't, it didn't matter if your call was fake.

00:05:22.045 --> 00:05:22.927
Can you pull it?

00:05:23.067 --> 00:05:23.206
off.

00:05:23.206 --> 00:05:26.314
Yeah yeah, it's a highly entertaining subject, to say the least.

00:05:26.314 --> 00:05:32.420
Let's go back a little further, though, cause I do want to know did you study radio in college?

00:05:32.420 --> 00:05:35.160
You said you got this job a little after you graduated.

00:05:35.160 --> 00:05:40.286
Was the dream always radio, or or did you fall into it, and how did that happen?

00:05:40.286 --> 00:05:42.545
How was the transition, and did you study to become this?

00:05:43.266 --> 00:05:44.230
Well, I did, yeah.

00:05:44.230 --> 00:05:54.507
So when I was in high school, I really didn't have an idea of what I wanted to do, until maybe about my junior or senior year, and I was sort of I played sports.

00:05:54.507 --> 00:06:01.641
I played football and baseball in high school and I knew I wasn't going to be good enough to get scholarships and move on to the next level, so I started.

00:06:01.641 --> 00:06:04.165
I had to start thinking about what do I really want to do?

00:06:04.165 --> 00:06:07.050
And I wasn't quite sure.

00:06:07.050 --> 00:06:17.228
But something about performing was always something I was interested in, like whether it was on a baseball field or on a football field.

00:06:17.228 --> 00:06:26.334
So I started thinking about acting and then I thought, well, I want to eat, so maybe acting's not a good idea.

00:06:26.942 --> 00:06:28.629
So I know what I'll do I'll go into radio.

00:06:30.141 --> 00:06:37.927
Well, really, my thoughts were to be somewhere in the TV production or radio production.

00:06:37.927 --> 00:06:44.824
I was always a big music fan and so that was really the goal to maybe be a cameraman.

00:06:44.824 --> 00:06:48.430
I didn't even know what those jobs were.

00:06:48.430 --> 00:06:50.211
I knew nothing about the industry.

00:06:50.211 --> 00:06:52.375
I had nobody, I had no help.

00:06:52.375 --> 00:06:59.201
I didn't know.

00:06:59.201 --> 00:07:01.307
You know, I thought DJs played their own records, you know, or their own songs.

00:07:01.307 --> 00:07:07.122
I didn't know anything about program directors or anything like that, directors or anything like that.

00:07:07.122 --> 00:07:07.423
So I went into.

00:07:07.444 --> 00:07:16.028
I went to college for communications at William Patterson College, which is now a university in Wayne, new Jersey, and just tried to absorb as much as I could.

00:07:16.028 --> 00:07:21.043
And it's funny, I during that time I commuted, I didn't live away at college.

00:07:21.043 --> 00:07:50.822
I once a week I would go grocery shopping for my grandparents they were getting up in years and weren't really moving around much and my grandfather, who was this old Ukrainian guy, would sit in the living room and listen to the radio, like many of that generation did, and he would listen to talk radio and he'd have me sit there and listen to this guy and listen to this guy and I was kind of captivated by it because the people that he was listening to were powerful they had.

00:07:50.822 --> 00:07:53.891
They had a command of the English language and they were also just.

00:07:53.891 --> 00:08:03.694
They were very good storytellers and I and I said to myself, that's something I would be interested in doing as well, as you know, maybe playing music.

00:08:03.694 --> 00:08:06.201
So that's sort of where I started leaning towards radio.

00:08:06.744 --> 00:08:09.990
And did you leverage that at William Patterson?

00:08:09.990 --> 00:08:10.932
Were you on the air there?

00:08:10.932 --> 00:08:12.103
Did you do a bunch of shows?

00:08:12.704 --> 00:08:13.146
I did.

00:08:13.146 --> 00:08:27.911
So the real funny thing is and this is, as all of us are radio guys, you'll appreciate most college radio you get to do your own show and you get to bring your own music in and kind of create your own little you know niche show.

00:08:27.911 --> 00:08:29.939
Not at William Patterson.

00:08:29.939 --> 00:08:34.166
We were a supposedly a.

00:08:34.166 --> 00:08:41.796
We were run a professional like a professional radio station, which meant a program director, a music director, sales team.

00:08:41.796 --> 00:08:43.225
I was actually sales manager.

00:08:43.225 --> 00:08:53.792
We had commercials and the format that was selected was adult, contemporary, so so now you have these, I'm you know.

00:08:53.792 --> 00:08:56.241
So now I'm 20 years old and I'm playing.

00:08:56.342 --> 00:09:10.988
You know, michael bolton said I love you, but I lied and I was like this is not when you had to sell that or ace if I ever, ever hear ace of base I saw the sign and one more time I mean these were the songs that I was playing and I was doing a 6.

00:09:10.988 --> 00:09:13.788
Am Shift and it was just like torture.

00:09:14.280 --> 00:09:15.927
But I do like.

00:09:15.927 --> 00:09:17.284
Don't turn around by ace of base.

00:09:17.405 --> 00:09:20.467
I can't, I can't but Michael Bolton at 6.

00:09:20.467 --> 00:09:20.921
Am.

00:09:20.921 --> 00:09:22.745
That's got to be tough, and Meatloaf.

00:09:22.865 --> 00:09:24.087
I'd do anything for love.

00:09:24.087 --> 00:09:26.033
I mean, it was all that.

00:09:26.033 --> 00:09:32.703
It was that Brian Adams song from the Robin Hood sound like all of those songs, one after another, and every shift.

00:09:32.703 --> 00:09:38.081
We played them and you could not deviate the program director, who was a professor on the campus.

00:09:38.081 --> 00:09:38.961
He would pull you off.

00:09:39.881 --> 00:09:45.307
You know, you and I have a very similar story in that sense, jim, is that I started off obviously same way college radio.

00:09:45.307 --> 00:09:47.928
I was over at Fordham, so for me it was WFUV.

00:09:47.928 --> 00:09:49.230
Fuv was the same way.

00:09:49.230 --> 00:09:50.692
It was a professional station.

00:09:50.692 --> 00:09:54.414
I was part of the student staff for sports and the same thing.

00:09:54.414 --> 00:10:00.202
We had a very specific, we had a hierarchy there as well and we ran a professional station.

00:10:00.202 --> 00:10:03.788
We ran as close to a professional station as possible, I think at some point.

00:10:03.788 --> 00:10:06.614
I mean, I was obviously one of the on-air hosts and a play-by-play guy.

00:10:06.614 --> 00:10:12.070
I never got to be the sports director over there, but I understand where you're coming from.

00:10:12.070 --> 00:10:17.249
And yes, william Pat, even a couple of the other schools in the New Jersey area had that same type of format.

00:10:17.249 --> 00:10:23.426
So your time there really set you up well to move into the big New York market.

00:10:23.426 --> 00:10:27.520
Did you do any internships then during your time at William Pett or no?

00:10:27.822 --> 00:10:29.705
I did not.

00:10:29.705 --> 00:10:39.485
I guess it's ignorant now to think about it, but I didn't quite grasp the concept of working for no money.

00:10:39.485 --> 00:10:41.068
I just refused to do it.

00:10:41.529 --> 00:10:42.513
It's not ignorant.

00:10:42.513 --> 00:10:43.725
I don't know why you did it either.

00:10:44.248 --> 00:10:50.008
Yeah, and also I was bartending five days a week, pulling in you know some serious money.

00:10:50.008 --> 00:11:06.734
So the thought of giving up a bar shift where I could have pulled a few hundred bucks in to go, you know, get coffee for somebody or you know whatever be a seat filler on a TV set, you know talk show, just seemed ridiculous to me.

00:11:06.734 --> 00:11:09.105
It just, I just didn't understand the concept.

00:11:09.105 --> 00:11:15.048
You know, at least pay me something, I would have taken nothing, you know, I would have taken a few bucks, but just don't don't.

00:11:15.048 --> 00:11:19.186
I never grasped that concept, so I just never did an internship.

00:11:19.326 --> 00:11:22.172
So how do you get the job at Z100 then?

00:11:22.172 --> 00:11:23.402
Is this just radio?

00:11:23.402 --> 00:11:26.232
Experience of college lent itself to you being hired.

00:11:26.232 --> 00:11:27.437
How do you make that transition?

00:11:28.740 --> 00:11:35.966
Well, it's funny, you know, because we're talking about a time before the internet, and that was one of the toughest parts of that was.

00:11:35.966 --> 00:11:49.557
I graduated college and the one thing my college I can't say this about other universities or whatever I was there was no preparation for what the job market was like.

00:11:49.557 --> 00:11:51.659
They just sort of said well, good luck.

00:11:51.740 --> 00:11:52.964
Yeah, send you out there.

00:11:52.984 --> 00:11:53.908
Yep, there you out there on your own.

00:11:53.908 --> 00:11:55.211
Yep, there you go.

00:11:55.211 --> 00:12:03.400
Yeah, so I was.

00:12:03.400 --> 00:12:10.990
I had no direction whatsoever, you know, and I remember coming to New York city just basically getting dressed up and walking around New York city and trying to find where the record companies were and where the you know the TV stations were.

00:12:10.990 --> 00:12:21.482
I'm just seeing with resumes in a briefcase, just trying to figure out how to get my name in if I can just get past the reception desk or whatever.

00:12:21.482 --> 00:12:26.673
This is what you had to do or make phone calls, and I didn't have much success.

00:12:26.759 --> 00:12:35.921
I did get an interview with Atlantic Records once, but the funny thing was records once.

00:12:35.921 --> 00:12:43.234
But the funny thing was in that summer that I graduated college, there was a job fair at a hotel near where I live, like a ballroom kind of thing, and Z100 happened to be there.

00:12:43.234 --> 00:12:53.056
Now, it was funny because it wasn't anything any other radio stations, it was all like you know, local warehouses and factories and corporate stuff NZ100.

00:12:53.056 --> 00:13:00.594
And they were looking for salespeople and it just so happened that I was a sales manager, which was in title only.

00:13:00.594 --> 00:13:02.825
I don't think I actually sold a single thing.

00:13:03.667 --> 00:13:04.668
That's what I said.

00:13:04.668 --> 00:13:06.921
It says it the title says it all.

00:13:07.100 --> 00:13:08.745
Sales manager Looks good on a business card.

00:13:09.025 --> 00:13:14.017
Exactly so I sent, I gave them my resume and that was it.

00:13:14.017 --> 00:13:24.244
I didn't get a call until that December and they said you know, it's not a sales job, but it's a phone screening job, it's part-time, it paid minimum wage.

00:13:24.244 --> 00:13:29.033
And I said absolutely, you know, that's all I wanted.

00:13:29.033 --> 00:13:30.782
I just wanted to get into the building.

00:13:30.782 --> 00:13:33.647
I'll figure everything else out once I get in the door.

00:13:33.647 --> 00:13:40.764
But that was the goal at that time was just get in the door and learn as much as you can, and that's sort of what I did.

00:13:40.764 --> 00:13:44.472
I tried to take full advantage of that when I was at Z100.

00:13:45.019 --> 00:13:47.466
It's just such a different time today.

00:13:47.466 --> 00:13:50.653
So you get in the building, you're working, love phones.

00:13:50.653 --> 00:14:03.989
When did you start to create, you know, a path for yourself, like, when did you start to take on bigger assignments, bigger projects and become Jim Rotolo, or at least get onto that path?

00:14:04.600 --> 00:14:19.589
Well, the funny thing is Z100 actually became nationally syndicated and through a series of changes that happened in the show, within two years I was the producer of a nationally syndicated top-rated talk show.

00:14:19.589 --> 00:14:24.870
Love Phones was on 55 stations across the country and I was the producer.

00:14:24.870 --> 00:14:32.647
And I was the producer at that time and that was a big accomplishment and for me I thought it was and that was great.

00:14:32.647 --> 00:14:36.067
And then things kind of changed.

00:14:36.067 --> 00:14:48.755
You, you know, the show ran its course, it died out and my, my feeling was always well, keep moving and stay employed no matter what, because if this show gets canceled you're out and you know you may not get back in.

00:14:49.480 --> 00:14:51.625
So I had learned a lot of production.

00:14:51.625 --> 00:15:04.398
So I learned, learned how to do editing, I learned how to do pretty much everything behind the scenes, and that's sort of what I did for many years working for Westwood One and Premier Radio Network and MJI Broadcasting.

00:15:04.398 --> 00:15:06.381
I went behind the scenes for many years.

00:15:06.381 --> 00:15:30.293
I ended up producing some talk shows again in the late 90s on an Internet radio company called E-Yadacom, like yada, yada, yada, with an E in front of it, which was a lot of fun and except that we didn't get any phone calls because everybody, because everybody was still using a dial up.

00:15:30.293 --> 00:15:34.912
We were about a year and a half away from the technology.

00:15:34.912 --> 00:15:36.163
How long?

00:15:36.182 --> 00:15:37.106
were you at IATA for?

00:15:38.480 --> 00:15:40.567
Almost a year, I would say.

00:15:40.567 --> 00:15:48.361
I think we did a year, I think 1999 to 2000, right before, yeah, I think we were there for the turn of the century, Jim.

00:15:48.381 --> 00:15:49.386
I'm going to tell you this.

00:15:49.386 --> 00:15:52.027
You and I may have met at some point over there.

00:15:52.206 --> 00:15:53.451
Were you at IATA, did you work there?

00:15:54.500 --> 00:16:02.746
I worked there for like a year, and part-time, a little bit here and there, but I definitely did some work over there.

00:16:02.746 --> 00:16:03.721
I worked with you.

00:16:03.721 --> 00:16:04.684
Remember Ellen Roberts?

00:16:04.684 --> 00:16:09.927
Yeah, yeah, sports, yeah, she was doing a show, I forget with who at the time.

00:16:10.067 --> 00:16:11.051
Was it Don McGreca?

00:16:13.541 --> 00:16:14.202
Yeah, doing a show.

00:16:14.202 --> 00:16:15.166
I forget with who at the time.

00:16:15.166 --> 00:16:15.648
Was it don mcgregor?

00:16:15.648 --> 00:16:16.591
Yes, you did a show a show with don.

00:16:16.650 --> 00:16:18.056
Yes, I would board off that show on occasion, okay small world.

00:16:18.076 --> 00:16:28.354
So, yeah, probably you and I probably met over there yeah, so I was over there, I did, I produced a whole bunch of shows there, I did, and I ended up producing another sex show called sex bites.

00:16:28.354 --> 00:16:29.940
I was hosted by bob berkowitz.

00:16:29.940 --> 00:16:31.785
Uh, I did that show.

00:16:31.806 --> 00:16:32.568
I remember that show.

00:16:32.568 --> 00:16:33.130
Yes, I remember that show.

00:16:33.150 --> 00:16:40.552
Yes, I remember that show I produced that at one time and then I did a couple of health and fitness shows which I really enjoyed.

00:16:40.552 --> 00:16:42.106
That was my favorite thing.

00:16:42.106 --> 00:16:45.303
We had a health channel and it was a lot of fun.

00:16:45.303 --> 00:16:48.486
It was a great time and you know that ran its course.

00:16:48.486 --> 00:17:02.027
I think they laid half of us off, you know, when they realized we weren't making any money.

00:17:02.027 --> 00:17:03.551
You know, typical startup internet company at the time.

00:17:03.571 --> 00:17:23.451
And then I landed back in the syndication companies behind the scenes and I'm trying to think you know that's right around the time Sirius Satellite Radio started and that was a goal to get to work at Sirius, because I heard so many cool things about that place and I interviewed like five times and every time I and I was promised a job being a producer.

00:17:23.451 --> 00:17:32.250
I think Maxim Radio, I always think all these places were promising me jobs as a producer and every time they were about to bring me in and sign the papers there was a hiring freeze.

00:17:32.250 --> 00:17:34.968
So I had to wait and I had to keep waiting.

00:17:34.968 --> 00:17:53.236
I ended up over at another short term company called Air America Radio in early 2004, which was basically I think it was just basically a Democrat Party funded political AM channel.

00:17:53.236 --> 00:17:55.948
You know it was right around the time of Bush Kerry.

00:17:55.948 --> 00:18:06.202
So we had Al Franken, we had Janine Garofalo, we had Mark Marin, you know Chuck D from public.

00:18:06.222 --> 00:18:07.445
Lin Samuel, I think, was there too.

00:18:07.445 --> 00:18:08.327
Right, lin was there.

00:18:08.409 --> 00:18:11.469
Yes, lin was there, we had Chuck D from public enemy.

00:18:11.469 --> 00:18:12.855
I remember that, yes, yes, there, we had Chuck D from Public Enemy.

00:18:12.875 --> 00:18:13.176
I remember that.

00:18:13.176 --> 00:18:13.660
Yes, yes, yes.

00:18:14.059 --> 00:18:14.380
We did.

00:18:14.380 --> 00:18:15.101
We had that.

00:18:15.101 --> 00:18:19.805
Now I wasn't producing any shows, they had brought in their own people each of the hosts.

00:18:19.805 --> 00:18:21.626
Rachel Maddow was there.

00:18:21.626 --> 00:18:22.188
She was nice.

00:18:22.188 --> 00:18:26.571
I really liked her and we did that.

00:18:26.571 --> 00:18:32.616
I did commercial production, which was interesting because I sat in the studio all day and we had no commercials.

00:18:32.616 --> 00:18:35.413
Good job, which was interesting because I sat in the studio all day and we had no commercials.

00:18:35.413 --> 00:18:37.461
So I thought Good job yeah.

00:18:37.522 --> 00:18:38.025
I did great.

00:18:38.801 --> 00:18:39.506
I got to go.

00:18:41.490 --> 00:18:42.316
It was nice in the summertime.

00:18:42.820 --> 00:18:43.765
The summertime was nice.

00:18:43.765 --> 00:18:45.743
I went out for two-hour walks in the city.

00:18:45.743 --> 00:18:46.726
It was fun.

00:18:49.070 --> 00:18:51.561
And then Perfect radio, job yeah exactly.

00:18:51.741 --> 00:19:26.833
And then, at right around that point, I got a call from a guy named John McDermott, who I know, you guys know, we all know John, sure, a program director at a talk station in Long Island and I drove all the way out like way out on the island which was far from me in Jersey, to be the morning show producer and he liked me and we had a good conversation, but that never materialized, which turned out to be a good thing.

00:19:26.833 --> 00:19:37.750
So then John McDermott, a year later, is at Siriusatellite Radio and he remembered me and he called me in and he said we have a brand new show with a brand new host.

00:19:37.750 --> 00:19:42.426
His name is Dave Marsh, you know the rock critic from Cream Magazine and all that.

00:19:42.426 --> 00:19:44.211
And I'm like, yeah, I'm like oh, wow.

00:19:44.211 --> 00:19:47.326
So they say he's going to do a Sunday morning show.

00:19:47.326 --> 00:19:49.912
There's a producer position for you.

00:19:49.912 --> 00:19:51.683
He's never done radio before.

00:19:51.683 --> 00:19:54.290
You have a lot of radio producing experience.

00:19:54.290 --> 00:19:57.869
Teach him the ropes, get him through, and that's what I did.

00:19:57.869 --> 00:20:00.848
And 19 years later I'm still producing that show.

00:20:00.848 --> 00:20:01.210
Wow.

00:20:01.210 --> 00:20:04.189
So Dave's still at it, he's doing great.

00:20:04.189 --> 00:20:11.106
We've got, you know, still doing the shows there and that was sort of my beginning into and I'm still producing.

00:20:11.228 --> 00:20:14.493
I don't really jump on the air till about.

00:20:14.493 --> 00:20:19.534
I mean I was on in pockets, but I guess this is where the on-air part comes in.

00:20:19.534 --> 00:20:30.145
I ended up getting hired full-time as a morning show producer for the LGBT channel that we used to have called OutQ OutQ, sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:20:30.145 --> 00:20:32.325
So they need they again.

00:20:32.325 --> 00:20:56.045
Had two hosts that had never done radio before, and so I started teaching them how to work as a team morning show, how to create topics, you know, get phone calls, get people invested, interested in your lives and all this kind of stuff, and we had a lot of fun and it was a great time and I really, really enjoyed it, except I hated getting up at four in the morning, of course, and and and so I was.

00:20:56.045 --> 00:20:57.604
I was on air with them.

00:20:57.604 --> 00:20:58.948
We were like a team, you know.

00:20:58.948 --> 00:21:08.309
It was like Larry, cheryl and Jim and it was fun and we were all playing, you know, like a typical morning team, you know ribbon on each other and having different topics that we would bring in.

00:21:17.759 --> 00:21:18.542
And we in and we talked about our lives.

00:21:18.542 --> 00:21:18.984
Was that Larry Flick?

00:21:18.984 --> 00:21:19.527
Was that Larry Larry Flick?

00:21:19.527 --> 00:21:19.968
That was Larry's show.

00:21:19.968 --> 00:21:20.209
Okay, I know.

00:21:20.229 --> 00:21:20.651
Yeah, I know, great guy.

00:21:20.651 --> 00:21:21.313
Yeah, he moved to England, I think.

00:21:21.313 --> 00:21:22.175
Yeah, yeah, wales, yeah, wales, that's right.

00:21:22.175 --> 00:21:29.347
Yeah, it was a lot of fun and and you know, and it kind of took its, it ran its course as well and I started to get really comfortable on the mic.

00:21:29.347 --> 00:21:38.950
You know, I've started really feeling my own and you know, and I had people that would call in and I had fans and stuff and it was really nice.

00:21:38.950 --> 00:21:43.930
But I knew that, you know, it's an LGBT channel and I'm not going to get my show.

00:21:43.930 --> 00:21:45.820
I'm not going to get a show on this because I'm not.

00:21:45.820 --> 00:21:47.585
You know, I don't fit into that.

00:21:47.585 --> 00:22:09.720
So it's, it felt to me I needed to move on to something else and it just so happened that we had another channel at the time called Cosmo Radio, which was Cosmopolitan Magazine, and they had a new morning show, two young girls who were great, and they needed somebody to teach them radio.

00:22:09.720 --> 00:22:16.605
So I sort of found this role at Sirius at the time, teaching talk radio to people who had never done it before.

00:22:17.928 --> 00:22:30.223
And it was and it was great, and I had um a great time with uh Taylor Stricker and uh uh Tia, who I forget her last name, but Taylor's stayed for quite a while.

00:22:30.243 --> 00:22:30.605
She did.

00:22:30.605 --> 00:22:32.209
She had a show for a long time there, yeah.

00:22:32.630 --> 00:22:33.792
Yeah, yeah, she did.

00:22:33.792 --> 00:22:37.846
I think she's got a podcast now and that was a lot of fun.

00:22:37.846 --> 00:22:40.960
You know, I had a great time with them and I learned a lot.

00:22:40.960 --> 00:22:43.689
I know more about makeup than I ever thought I ever would.

00:22:43.689 --> 00:22:49.619
And that's where, like I met, that's where I met Larry Shedd.

00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:52.011
Yeah, let's jump in there Because we were working together, that's right.

00:22:52.011 --> 00:22:53.358
And your life changed.

00:22:53.378 --> 00:22:53.640
That's right.

00:22:53.740 --> 00:22:54.944
Your life changed in that very moment.

00:22:54.984 --> 00:22:56.490
Straight downhill, that's right.

00:22:57.881 --> 00:23:10.548
So one of the shows that they came up with on Cosmo Radio was a show called Guys Uncensored, and the concept was for the listeners, which was predominantly female.

00:23:10.548 --> 00:23:13.692
This is what guys talk about when women are not around.

00:23:13.692 --> 00:23:15.635
Okay.

00:23:15.817 --> 00:23:16.397
This was perfect.

00:23:16.397 --> 00:23:17.618
You want to talk to Larry Shea about that?

00:23:17.618 --> 00:23:18.865
Yes, you want to talk to.

00:23:18.904 --> 00:23:19.146
Larry.

00:23:19.166 --> 00:23:19.669
Shea about this.

00:23:19.669 --> 00:23:19.971
What does he?

00:23:19.990 --> 00:23:20.674
know, Without question.

00:23:22.324 --> 00:23:41.564
So they said to me how do you you know, this is your thing Round up your friends like three or four guys, do it someplace on location if you want, and just you know, just make sure you kind of keep the topics to a certain thing and that that could be somewhat related to the magazine each month or whatever, so topic topical.

00:23:41.564 --> 00:23:45.813
So I said, okay, fine, I had a connection at mickey mantel's bar and grill.

00:23:45.813 --> 00:23:48.747
That is no longer there on west 56th street.

00:23:48.747 --> 00:23:52.736
So we did the show at mickey mantles once a week.

00:23:52.736 --> 00:23:57.426
We taped it, I had portable equipment and I asked larry to be a part of it and it was.

00:23:57.426 --> 00:24:02.707
It was us and I had a friend, andrew, who was there I mean this was the best gig ever.

00:24:02.747 --> 00:24:04.050
Can I just jump in here?

00:24:04.050 --> 00:24:06.700
Because you know you go to mickey mantles.

00:24:06.700 --> 00:24:09.205
You order a beer, you have a burger or something.

00:24:09.205 --> 00:24:11.432
They crack the mics and you're talking about.

00:24:11.432 --> 00:24:17.232
You know a bunch of guys hanging out at mickey mant's you know it was the best man drinking beers.

00:24:17.232 --> 00:24:18.221
I mean, what could go wrong?

00:24:19.124 --> 00:24:21.368
And we had a good, we had a good deal.

00:24:21.368 --> 00:24:23.520
We had a good deal because the beer was free.

00:24:23.520 --> 00:24:24.642
We just had to pay for food.

00:24:24.642 --> 00:24:25.963
That's all we had to pay for.

00:24:25.963 --> 00:24:26.403
That's right.

00:24:26.403 --> 00:24:28.847
So the best part of this.

00:24:28.847 --> 00:24:36.376
So this is really my debut into hosting something, so I'm hosting a roundtable once a week and we're talking about topics and we're recording all this.

00:24:36.376 --> 00:24:51.926
So I think we recorded about 15 episodes and I want to say maybe five aired because the truth of the matter is they didn't want to hear what guys say when the girls are not around.

00:24:51.967 --> 00:24:59.487
That's right, and I remember having these arguments with the team, you know, like my bosses, and they were like we can't air this.

00:24:59.487 --> 00:25:00.644
And I would say why?

00:25:00.644 --> 00:25:03.126
And they said because women don't want to hear this.

00:25:03.126 --> 00:25:06.330
I said, well, this is the concept of the show, this is what men talk about.

00:25:07.101 --> 00:25:08.626
I said this is what men talk about.

00:25:08.626 --> 00:25:20.223
And they were like yeah, but they don't want you to talk about that.

00:25:20.223 --> 00:25:20.905
But I said that's not how this.

00:25:20.905 --> 00:25:22.692
Anyway, the whole thing was frustrating and it was great we had a great time doing it.

00:25:22.711 --> 00:25:23.374
It was a good time, Jim.

00:25:23.374 --> 00:25:23.594
It was a.

00:25:23.594 --> 00:25:24.016
It was a great time.

00:25:24.016 --> 00:25:26.805
In fact, my friend Andrew still sends me text messages.

00:25:26.805 --> 00:25:28.372
He has, he still has the recordings and he plays them.

00:25:28.372 --> 00:25:30.338
I do too, he has the recordings of them and he plays them.

00:25:30.338 --> 00:25:31.842
I do too.

00:25:31.842 --> 00:25:41.009
I'll have to dig those up one day, and so here's where things turn a bit, and I don't know if you guys knew this, I quit.

00:25:41.951 --> 00:25:42.733
I did not know that?

00:25:42.733 --> 00:25:43.375
No, I didn't know.

00:25:43.375 --> 00:25:46.026
I quit you quit serious or you quit the show.

00:25:46.801 --> 00:25:48.948
I quit serious for the well.

00:25:48.948 --> 00:25:50.090
So here's what I did.

00:25:50.090 --> 00:26:16.300
There was no.

00:26:16.300 --> 00:26:17.423
I was at a point where I couldn't do this anymore.

00:26:17.423 --> 00:26:19.709
I was doing the morning show at Cosmo and the girls were great and it was all fun, and I was doing Guys Uncensored.

00:26:19.709 --> 00:26:20.590
But I got to the point where I was stuck.

00:26:20.590 --> 00:26:24.240
There was no place for me to break through and do this, and so I voluntarily stepped down, with the exception of I still want to produce Dave Marsh's show on Sundays.

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:31.394
So I went from full-time status just down to working one day a week and I needed to do that.

00:26:31.394 --> 00:26:32.932
So I went and I said, okay, I need to do that.

00:26:32.932 --> 00:26:34.882
So I went and I said, okay, and I need to reinvent myself.

00:26:34.882 --> 00:26:54.874
I'm tired of being a talk show producer, because I did get to the point where if I'm teaching everybody else how to do radio and and I'm telling them what to say, and then they're just saying it well, then they're not not the talent, they're just doing what I'm telling them to do.

00:26:54.874 --> 00:26:57.127
Well, I can do that myself.

00:26:57.127 --> 00:27:03.148
And that's sort of like that light bulb went off in my head and that's where I decided I need to do this stuff on myself.

00:27:03.681 --> 00:27:05.989
So that's why I had to get away from Sirius for a little bit.

00:27:06.961 --> 00:27:07.041
So

00:27:07.082 --> 00:27:07.664
what was the plan?

00:27:07.664 --> 00:27:10.409
You want to get away, but you must have had a game plan.

00:27:10.409 --> 00:27:11.982
How am I going to reinvent myself?

00:27:11.982 --> 00:27:12.743
What did you do?

00:27:12.785 --> 00:27:13.045
Yeah

00:27:13.045 --> 00:27:17.314
, so the plan was to to to get it into music, and I wanted to.

00:27:17.314 --> 00:27:24.047
So I initially tried to get it on the music side at Sirius and there just wasn't anything happening at the time, which was fine.

00:27:24.047 --> 00:27:26.393
I uh, there was a.

00:27:26.393 --> 00:27:33.066
There's a local rock station along the Jersey shore called WRAT the rat 95.

00:27:33.086 --> 00:27:33.969
Everybody goes to the rat.

00:27:36.525 --> 00:27:39.471
The rat is where, like you, you know where you make your bones.

00:27:39.471 --> 00:27:41.867
You know you get a Carl craft.

00:27:41.867 --> 00:27:44.628
It was still the program director for over 20 years.

00:27:44.628 --> 00:27:46.866
I knew a few people there.

00:27:46.866 --> 00:27:49.228
I sent an audition tape in.

00:27:49.228 --> 00:27:52.930
He gave me a, an overnight shift, like midnight to 5.

00:27:52.930 --> 00:27:53.402
Am.

00:27:53.402 --> 00:28:03.647
He sound checked me and he said well, the place didn't burn down in the overnight, so we'll put you in the weekend rotation and that was that's all I wanted, you know.

00:28:03.647 --> 00:28:06.073
So I was doing weekends at the Rat.

00:28:06.073 --> 00:28:13.353
I had Sunday mornings with Dave Marsh and I went back to bartending for a little while to make ends meet.

00:28:13.353 --> 00:28:17.048
You know that's what I had to do, but it was all worth it.

00:28:17.048 --> 00:28:28.642
It was a strange time but it was worth it because my relationship with Dave was good, really good, and this is where the Springsteen portal ties in for people that don't know.

00:28:29.262 --> 00:28:32.388
So Dave Marsh wrote several books about Bruce.

00:28:32.388 --> 00:28:56.742
His wife, barbara Carr, was one of Bruce's managers, and so I was spending time with Dave, was able to go to a bunch of the concerts and I've met people there and they had come up with this idea of E Street Radio for Sirius XM, which was only supposed to be a temporary channel for Bruce's Born to Run anniversary box set.

00:28:56.742 --> 00:29:00.230
Bruce came up to Sirius Dave and him did a nice interview.

00:29:00.230 --> 00:29:01.073
I engineered it.

00:29:01.073 --> 00:29:04.346
It was wonderful, not thinking long term.

00:29:05.048 --> 00:29:31.631
Well, the channel disappeared after it ran its course but Dave Marsh and Bruce's management and management at Sirius XM decided to bring the channel back as the first artist-based 24-7 channel on the platform, and so now there was a place for me to come back to and Dave had a show of his own called Live from E Street Nation.

00:29:31.631 --> 00:29:51.228
I was producing that and I was back full time with the company and I'm still doing the RAT W-R-A-T and I think I moved over to WDHA, which is another station in Jersey at the time and I was trying to think of something I could do on my own and I had this idea.

00:29:51.228 --> 00:29:56.403
Now we're all sports fans, right, so we love you know we go to games.

00:29:56.403 --> 00:29:58.394
I know you're Bills fans with Giants.

00:29:58.394 --> 00:29:59.901
I don't know what other teams you guys like.

00:30:00.040 --> 00:30:01.163
Giants over here Giants.

00:30:01.163 --> 00:30:03.147
Okay, right, so I was.

00:30:03.147 --> 00:30:03.890
I had a jet.

00:30:03.890 --> 00:30:08.945
I'm not a jet fan, but I had jet season tickets for many, many years, me and seven of my closest friends.

00:30:09.948 --> 00:30:18.913
And we, when I tell you, we tailgated hard, man, we had some crazy stuff, but we, we took it seriously.

00:30:18.913 --> 00:30:19.977
It was important to us.

00:30:19.977 --> 00:30:29.183
You know, we looked forward to those Sundays and much like going to a concert, you, you tailgate, you know, in this big stadiums or arenas and you, and what do you do with those tailgates?

00:30:29.183 --> 00:30:36.864
Well, you drink beer and you eat and you talk to the people that pulled up next to you and to the left and to the right, and you talk about if it's sports, you talk about the games.

00:30:36.864 --> 00:30:38.632
You know all the different details.

00:30:38.632 --> 00:30:39.737
What place are they in that?

00:30:39.737 --> 00:30:43.489
You see, last week, I hope this week this guy kicks better, all that kind of stuff.

00:30:43.489 --> 00:30:45.582
And the same thing with concerts you talk about.

00:30:45.582 --> 00:30:50.048
You know, oh, I saw the band on the last tour or I hope they play this song tonight.

00:30:50.789 --> 00:31:12.211
So I had this idea of a tailgate party on the radio with Bruce Springsteen fans and it would be a request show where people would request songs, but I would have a topic every week, much like if you were in a parking lot talking amongst people you had never met before.

00:31:12.220 --> 00:31:24.932
Anything from favorite opening song of a Bruce Springsteen album lot talking amongst people you had never met before you know anything from you know favorite opening song of a bruce springsteen album, or you know a favorite female character, or you know best live version of whatever thunder road you can.

00:31:25.153 --> 00:32:05.790
There was all these different topics you could come up with and I I said we, I can do this, I can build this community because it's there and, thankfully, sirius XM and Dave Marsh and John Landau Management they all gave me the green light to create this show and in 2011, I debuted the Wild and the Innocent with Jim Rotolo on Sunday nights I'm sorry on Friday nights at 6 pm Eastern time with Jim Rotolo on Sunday nights I'm sorry on Friday nights at 6 pm Eastern time, and I knew the audience was there and they showed up almost immediately, which I couldn't believe, and it's been quite something.

00:32:05.790 --> 00:32:12.959
I've been doing the show for over 10 years now and there's a community of fans, actually a community of friends.

00:32:12.959 --> 00:32:17.791
I just did an event last weekend and people had come up to me.

00:32:17.791 --> 00:32:30.969
This woman came in from Montana and she said I'm here with and she mentioned three other people and she said we're all friends and we all met because of your show.

00:32:32.011 --> 00:32:32.593
Look at that, Jim.

00:32:32.880 --> 00:32:34.507
You know it's interesting, jim.

00:32:34.507 --> 00:32:36.607
I am a member of that community.

00:32:36.607 --> 00:32:40.611
I have been listening to your show since the very beginning.

00:32:40.611 --> 00:32:43.027
I'm a Springsteen fanatic.

00:32:43.027 --> 00:32:54.273
I've always followed along very closely and one of the things that I wanted to get to was you know, how does it feel to be the voice of a community?

00:32:54.273 --> 00:32:56.769
I mean, is there a pressure that comes with that?

00:32:56.769 --> 00:32:59.340
Is there a sense of responsibility with that Like?

00:32:59.340 --> 00:33:00.529
What is that like?

00:33:01.455 --> 00:33:03.441
You know it's a good question.

00:33:03.441 --> 00:33:06.086
I I didn't.

00:33:06.086 --> 00:33:12.167
I knew I could build something and I knew that I could bring people together.

00:33:12.167 --> 00:33:17.886
I mean, it's, you know it helps to have Bruce Springsteen music to do that with, but I didn't.

00:33:17.886 --> 00:33:23.346
I don't see myself as any kind of like leader or kind of.

00:33:23.346 --> 00:33:25.298
You know, I'm the creator of this.

00:33:25.298 --> 00:33:31.490
I mean I did create it, but I created the show, but it's, you know, it's just this nice community of people it's.

00:33:31.570 --> 00:33:43.131
It's a bit overwhelming at times because, especially when you go out to shows or events and you know you meet all these people and they, they want to tell you their story and it's and it's, it's beautiful.

00:33:43.131 --> 00:33:51.102
I do my very best to listen to everybody and give them their time because they have something that they want to share with me and it's important to them.

00:33:51.102 --> 00:33:54.083
You know I meet families of Bruce Springsteen fans.

00:33:54.083 --> 00:33:55.226
You know generations.

00:33:55.226 --> 00:34:02.508
We've got a tour coming up, so I'll be out on the road seeing some of these shows and we'll be doing some live broadcasts and things like that.

00:34:02.508 --> 00:34:17.005
It's amazing, it went far beyond what I ever realized it would be and and I'm very grateful for everybody that's that, you know, invests in the show and invests in E Street Radio.

00:34:17.005 --> 00:34:22.425
You know, like I said, it's it's, it's a dream come true.

00:34:22.425 --> 00:34:36.293
And I and I, I just I just knew I could make something, like I could make something happen and I could just do something more than play songs on the radio.

00:34:36.693 --> 00:34:40.452
That's amazing and that's that's great that's kind of what I wanted to do it's amazing.

00:34:40.472 --> 00:34:46.494
I think it's a good time to ask this question because we're talking about the community and I don't want this to sound weird.

00:34:46.494 --> 00:34:48.800
But like, do you get asked to get messages?

00:34:48.800 --> 00:34:53.699
Do people treat you as a bit of a conduit to Bruce and like, if so, how do you handle that?

00:34:53.699 --> 00:35:02.706
Like, obviously you're nice, but how do you handle it is a responsibility, right, you're representing a little bit yeah yeah 100%.

00:35:02.766 --> 00:35:04.835
I get asked a lot of favors.

00:35:04.835 --> 00:35:07.257
Uh, people ask you know, can you get this to Bruce?

00:35:07.257 --> 00:35:07.498
You know I.

00:35:07.498 --> 00:35:08.119
I get asked a lot of favors.

00:35:08.119 --> 00:35:09.280
People ask you know, can you get this to Bruce?

00:35:09.280 --> 00:35:12.302
You know I get that and you know I tell people as nicely as I can.

00:35:12.302 --> 00:35:13.563
I don't have that.

00:35:13.563 --> 00:35:22.771
I have a line to the management company and I do have a line to Bruce for certain things.

00:35:22.771 --> 00:35:28.137
But it's not like I can text him and say you know what are you doing for the giant game this Sunday?

00:35:28.137 --> 00:35:28.518
You want to go?

00:35:28.599 --> 00:35:28.719
out.

00:35:28.978 --> 00:35:29.440
Like I can't.

00:35:29.942 --> 00:35:33.740
I can't I can't do that and then I would never do that.

00:35:33.740 --> 00:35:49.804
There's a there's boundaries, you know you have to have certain boundaries and you have to respect people's privacy, and so as much as I would try to really like to help everybody but that's not my job I can't help everybody's request.

00:35:49.804 --> 00:35:55.090
Can you have Bruce call in to my mom's birthday this week?

00:35:55.090 --> 00:35:55.751
No, I can't.

00:35:55.751 --> 00:35:56.670
I can't do that.

00:35:56.974 --> 00:35:58.057
But Jim Rotolo can.

00:35:58.057 --> 00:35:59.001
Are you on Cameo?

00:35:59.001 --> 00:36:00.625
Am I on Cameo?

00:36:00.625 --> 00:36:01.166
No, I'm not.

00:36:01.166 --> 00:36:03.577
Could be an opportunity.

00:36:03.577 --> 00:36:04.458
Why do you have a Cameo dude?

00:36:04.458 --> 00:36:04.659
All right.

00:36:04.659 --> 00:36:09.007
I'm writing that down after we record this, check out Cameo.

00:36:09.106 --> 00:36:10.509
Cameo link or whatever.

00:36:12.155 --> 00:36:12.655
I need to do that.

00:36:12.655 --> 00:36:14.675
So, jim, like for the vision of the channel.

00:36:14.675 --> 00:36:17.797
You know you've brought forward different programs.

00:36:17.797 --> 00:36:20.418
You're obviously the lead voice on E Street Radio.

00:36:20.418 --> 00:36:22.900
The Wild, the Innocent Growing Up is now out there.

00:36:22.900 --> 00:36:24.579
Like, what is your role?

00:36:24.579 --> 00:36:25.981
What is your participation?

00:36:25.981 --> 00:36:31.043
Or just what is your role when it comes to content vision?

00:36:31.043 --> 00:36:33.724
Who puts that forward for E Street Radio?

00:36:33.724 --> 00:36:38.126
And are other people like John Landau and Bruce like, like, how does all that work?

00:36:39.385 --> 00:36:47.269
It's myself, vinny Uscerello, who has the title of channel director.

00:36:47.269 --> 00:36:56.954
I am considered the executive producer and on-air host of the channel, if you want to go in titles, and Vinny and I work really well together as a team.

00:36:56.954 --> 00:37:00.527
We're a great partnership.

00:37:00.527 --> 00:37:26.367
We both have a lot of different ideas that we put together and you know we talk about what's coming up in the in the world of bruce calendar, wise anniversary, special guests, all those kinds of things and we just always have different ways of taking the music and making it fresh again in some way, like repackaging it in certain ways, and and everybody at john landau and Bruce himself have been very, very supportive.

00:37:26.367 --> 00:37:37.583
You know Bruce did 19, I'm sorry, 29 episodes of his own show that he created during the pandemic, called From my Home to Yours, and he recorded those at home.

00:37:37.583 --> 00:37:40.528
I helped produce those shows.

00:37:40.528 --> 00:37:46.407
So Bruce and I had lots of conversations during the pandemic about putting those shows together.

00:37:46.407 --> 00:37:47.637
They're all on him.

00:37:47.637 --> 00:37:50.204
I mean he picked all the music and all of that.

00:37:50.204 --> 00:37:55.726
I just kind of put them together and seen whatever, like you know, little fine touches it needed.

00:37:55.726 --> 00:37:58.259
So I mean it is a team effort.

00:37:58.820 --> 00:38:03.168
My role is just to kind of keep the forward momentum on everything.

00:38:03.168 --> 00:38:05.164
You know there's lots of things going on.

00:38:05.164 --> 00:38:09.298
There's the Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music.

00:38:09.298 --> 00:38:24.483
They're building a whole museum in Long Branch on Monmouth University, so that's under construction and they have like all of it's officially certified from Bruce, so they have all these great archives and stuff and memorabilia.

00:38:24.483 --> 00:38:26.047
So there's that, you know.

00:38:26.047 --> 00:38:31.206
I mean, the guy is 73 years old, he's still making albums and now he's going on a world tour.

00:38:31.206 --> 00:38:38.195
That helps, you know for sure, you know it helps that he's active and he's busy and he's doing things.

00:38:38.195 --> 00:38:48.670
So you know, we, we, we just keep moving along and and, and now that we've got this tour that's about to happen, or by the time this airs, we'll have already been underway.

00:38:48.670 --> 00:38:54.126
So, and I don't think that's going to, I think that's going to last for the next couple of years.

00:38:54.126 --> 00:38:56.081
So I'm excited about that.

00:38:56.081 --> 00:39:00.905
It keeps me busy and I get to go see Bruce Springsteen concerts, which isn't a bad gig.

00:39:01.976 --> 00:39:04.425
You mentioned the pandemic just a few minutes ago.

00:39:04.425 --> 00:39:09.007
Would you say the show was more important or as important during pandemic?

00:39:09.007 --> 00:39:10.858
Which show?

00:39:10.878 --> 00:39:12.623
Bruce's show or my show.

00:39:13.014 --> 00:39:16.385
Yeah, or the channel in general your show, Bruce's show, etc.

00:39:18.617 --> 00:39:23.365
One of the things that changed during the pandemic was I had only been on air twice a week.

00:39:23.365 --> 00:39:25.969
I had only been on air twice a week.

00:39:25.969 --> 00:39:33.675
I was doing the Live from E Street Nation with Dave Marsh, and then my Wild and Innocent show on Friday nights.

00:39:33.675 --> 00:39:39.382
Once the pandemic started, I started going on the air every day and that's what I'm doing currently.

00:39:39.382 --> 00:39:41.121
I'm on five days a week.

00:39:41.121 --> 00:39:45.153
In the mornings I do 9 to noon Eastern and then I come back and do 5 to 8 Eastern time.

00:39:45.153 --> 00:39:45.487
Why the mornings?

00:39:45.487 --> 00:39:47.659
I do nine to noon Eastern and then I come back and do five to eight, you know, eastern time.

00:39:47.659 --> 00:39:48.260
Why the change up?

00:39:48.260 --> 00:39:55.603
To keep in contact with people I guess a friendly voice, you know to kind of keep the community, you know.

00:39:55.603 --> 00:40:02.646
So you know, during the pandemic everybody disappeared, everybody went and locked, you know, down and you know.

00:40:02.666 --> 00:40:14.514
I think the great thing about what we did with E Street and Sirius XM in general is just, we kept, we found ways to keep the connection there between our subscribers and the music.

00:40:14.715 --> 00:40:18.425
You know we were live on New Year's Eve of 2020.

00:40:18.815 --> 00:40:20.342
I did the countdown to midnight.

00:40:20.956 --> 00:40:42.905
I had Bruce call in and, you know, southside, johnny, we, we, we, we tried to comfort as best we could during those times and Bruce definitely stepped up by doing these radio shows from my Home to Yours and the fact that he wanted to get out there and stay connected with his audience, and especially during there were some rocky times during that period.

00:40:42.905 --> 00:40:59.364
So you know he had his own commentary on what was happening and you know he had his own commentary on what was happening and you know it felt comforting and that's the word I think many of the fans have said to me that during the pandemic it was so it felt good to hear your voice, which was a really sweet compliment.

00:40:59.364 --> 00:41:15.423
So that's, you know, that's what we did during that time and Bruce released an album during that period as well, but he really those From my Home to Yours shows really made a huge difference and then I was kind of there doing my thing as well.

00:41:15.423 --> 00:41:20.739
So we really we upped our game during the pandemic and I think we did a really good job.

00:41:21.121 --> 00:41:29.900
Yeah, I think it's suffice to say this community and what you do is very special and unique among fan bases and you are that conduit, right.

00:41:29.900 --> 00:41:30.744
It's super important.

00:41:30.744 --> 00:41:34.545
I love hearing about your story and how you got to where you are.

00:41:34.545 --> 00:41:38.043
I mean, do you have a professional highlight at this point?

00:41:38.043 --> 00:41:38.885
Is it a moment?

00:41:38.885 --> 00:41:40.027
Is it an interview?

00:41:40.027 --> 00:41:41.400
Is it a concert?

00:41:41.400 --> 00:41:44.675
Is it what's give me a professional highlight?

00:41:44.675 --> 00:41:46.061
Because you're living a dream right now.

00:41:46.536 --> 00:41:49.684
It sounds like yeah, well, it's interesting.

00:41:49.684 --> 00:41:57.742
I, you know, I I don't really feel like I work for a living, so I, but it took me a while to get there.

00:41:57.742 --> 00:42:06.786
But you know, as one, as one of my close friends said to me one day I had him on the radio, we were doing an on location show in Asbury Park.

00:42:06.786 --> 00:42:12.643
He turned to me afterwards and he had said you did have a plan, didn't you?

00:42:12.643 --> 00:42:16.047
I?

00:42:16.088 --> 00:42:21.257
said Well, I did, it, just took a while as far as a career highlight, you know I can't single out one particular thing.

00:42:21.257 --> 00:42:25.860
I, like you know, I can't single out one particular thing.

00:42:25.860 --> 00:42:43.637
I just there are moments where you could be at a room or at a show or in somebody's home and you kind of step outside yourself or you kind of say to yourself, how did I get here, how did this happen?

00:42:43.637 --> 00:42:45.583
And those are, like, my favorite moments.

00:42:45.583 --> 00:42:47.717
You know whether it's a time.

00:42:47.717 --> 00:42:59.516
You know I tell a story about having a turkey sandwich with Bruce at his home, which is a very long story that's kind of surreal, right, exactly, and that's one of those moments where it's like, how did this happen?

00:42:59.655 --> 00:43:07.081
You know, like you know I was, I was like making martinis like five years ago or whatever time it was.

00:43:07.081 --> 00:43:12.264
So things like that are sort of, I guess, my personal highlights.

00:43:12.264 --> 00:43:22.391
I mean, yes, you know, being around the Bruce world and all these years and the backstage stuff, the family of people, that it's a family backstage.

00:43:22.391 --> 00:43:25.393
They're great people and they've been so welcoming to me.

00:43:25.393 --> 00:43:28.617
You know, those moments have been great.

00:43:28.617 --> 00:43:44.364
You know meeting so many famous people and having conversations, like I do now with my new show growing up, and, you know, having these one-to-ones with people that you know were known throughout the US, some throughout the world.

00:43:44.364 --> 00:43:46.108
I mean these are all great moments.

00:43:46.108 --> 00:43:57.266
I think the best is just the fact that I've been able to have some ideas and bring them to fruition, that they've been able to.

00:43:57.266 --> 00:44:01.275
You know, I could take something that I was thinking about and actually make it happen.

00:44:01.275 --> 00:44:04.865
I think those are the best career highlights creating two radio shows.

00:44:05.956 --> 00:44:07.842
All right, let's talk the flip side of that.

00:44:07.842 --> 00:44:13.307
So obviously, as you said, at one point you did quit from Sirius and you had some low lights in your career.

00:44:13.307 --> 00:44:21.349
So was there because it's not, you know, for those who want to get into the business, it's not all champagne and roses right.

00:44:21.349 --> 00:44:26.086
So there's also the point where you say to yourself is it even worth it and do I want to quit?

00:44:26.086 --> 00:44:32.572
So was there a moment, or a couple of moments where in the career, you said to yourself I'm done, I can't take it anymore?

00:44:37.068 --> 00:44:43.137
No, the one thing that I've always prided myself on in this industry is persistence.

00:44:43.137 --> 00:44:49.949
I guess that's sort of my sports upbringing is if you want to be good at something, you have to keep working at it.

00:44:49.949 --> 00:44:56.115
So that was always I.

00:44:56.115 --> 00:44:57.197
There are times when you're like, why am I doing this?

00:44:57.197 --> 00:44:59.139
Especially in the beginning, when you're making no money and you're working.

00:44:59.139 --> 00:45:10.626
You know you're missing holidays and you're missing events because you know you're working Christmas Day or you're working Thanksgiving and you're not with your family and everybody and all your other friends are celebrating with their families and stuff.

00:45:10.626 --> 00:45:13.023
But you're doing this because you love what you do.

00:45:13.023 --> 00:45:16.894
I don't regret anything.

00:45:16.894 --> 00:45:28.108
I just I think the only thing I might have done differently would be I think my education should have been different.

00:45:28.108 --> 00:45:29.250
I think I don't.

00:45:29.250 --> 00:45:32.099
Really I wish I went to a better school.

00:45:32.099 --> 00:45:38.804
I wish I had a little more knowledge of how the industry worked before I tried to go out and pursue it.

00:45:39.347 --> 00:45:43.938
That was a very yeah well, that was a very frustrating time because I had no direction.

00:45:43.938 --> 00:45:47.945
So this is no secret.

00:45:47.945 --> 00:45:54.603
Many people in our industry went to locally here in the New York metro area.

00:45:54.603 --> 00:46:05.559
Well, you either went to like Seton Hall, which was known for their radio station, or everybody went to Syracuse University because Syracuse had this or Fordham.

00:46:05.559 --> 00:46:06.643
Or Fordham right.

00:46:06.643 --> 00:46:08.286
What the hell did I?

00:46:08.327 --> 00:46:09.739
know I didn't know any of that existed.

00:46:09.739 --> 00:46:10.543
I didn't know any.

00:46:10.543 --> 00:46:13.266
When I tell you I knew absolutely nothing.

00:46:13.266 --> 00:46:16.096
I knew absolutely nothing and I had no.

00:46:16.096 --> 00:46:21.000
You know people looked at me like you want to like people.

00:46:21.000 --> 00:46:21.699
How do you get into?

00:46:21.699 --> 00:46:25.422
Like people like me don't get into radio, you know.

00:46:25.422 --> 00:46:32.989
That's sort of how it was looked at or perceived and I, just like I said, I wish I had done more research.

00:46:32.989 --> 00:46:44.956
But it was hard to do research back then for things like that because you didn't know, I didn't Like.

00:46:44.956 --> 00:46:48.108
I said that might be the only thing I wish I might have done differently because it might have given me a different head start in the in the career.

00:46:48.108 --> 00:46:48.711
But listen, it all works out.

00:46:48.731 --> 00:47:04.456
For a reason, right For sure, and you know I think it's been my experience that people with heart, confidence and passion, things find a way of working themselves out, and clearly you're one of those people who wound up in the right place, as you.

00:47:04.456 --> 00:47:10.304
You know, look forward, um, and I know you're in a wonderful place right now, but you know what?

00:47:10.304 --> 00:47:10.887
What is the?

00:47:10.967 --> 00:47:12.655
what does the future hold for Jim Rotolo?

00:47:13.596 --> 00:47:13.817
well

00:47:13.876 --> 00:47:23.215
it's funny you say that, because I was sitting down and, um, I've sort of found myself in this hobby.

00:47:23.215 --> 00:48:11.159
I don't know what, I don't know if it's a hobby, I don't know how you describe it, but it's something that I've been kind of passionate about over the past few years personal growth and development and it's something that's not very popular here in the US, and it's something that I think is very important for people that struggle with different things and I have friends of mine that have gone through some stuff, and myself included and it's something that I think more people should be aware of and how there's ways you can take care of yourself better, both mentally and physically and I've been talking with a lot of different experts and I'm thinking about starting my own podcast in regards to that Something different you know,

00:48:11.460 --> 00:48:13.079
Yeah, I mean much like the same.

00:48:13.079 --> 00:48:16.643
You guys, you know, talking with me and others about their stories.

00:48:16.643 --> 00:48:25.043
You know there's a journey that we all go through and there's a lot of people that don't get to achieve things for many different reasons.

00:48:25.043 --> 00:48:35.740
And you know, you can change your mindset by doing a few different things with your, if you look at things a lot differently.

00:48:35.740 --> 00:48:47.858
And there's ways to go about doing that, but a lot of it is taking ownership on yourself and learning how to focus away from negative aspects of your life and turning them around and working at it.

00:48:47.858 --> 00:48:50.746
And that's what I mean by personal growth and development.

00:48:50.907 --> 00:48:54.201
And you know, a lot of people choose not to do that.

00:48:54.201 --> 00:49:04.289
They rather, you know, take pills or, you know, avoid the uncomfortable stuff, and that's sort of where I want to maybe go into.

00:49:04.289 --> 00:49:08.606
I mean, I love music and I love what I do right now and I will continue to do that.

00:49:08.606 --> 00:49:14.047
But this is sort of something that has piqued my interest over the past few years, you know.

00:49:14.047 --> 00:49:27.090
So I've talked with several doctors and other experts in this industry and I just feel like it's something that's not been talked about here in the U?

00:49:27.090 --> 00:49:27.271
S.

00:49:27.271 --> 00:49:32.759
So I'm thinking about bringing a podcast and bringing some of these people on and having some of these conversations.

00:49:32.759 --> 00:49:34.684
So stay tuned for that.

00:49:36.050 --> 00:49:36.853
It's a great topic.

00:49:36.853 --> 00:49:43.840
Yeah, that's a great topic and, and you know, I personally have, you know, been touched a couple of times recently by, by similar stories.

00:49:43.840 --> 00:49:51.463
So, um, it would certainly be be valuable and interesting to hear, um, all kinds of different perspectives around that.

00:49:51.463 --> 00:49:57.204
Um, so, jim, you know, good luck with that and good luck with with everything you're doing.

00:49:57.204 --> 00:50:02.317
Can you, can you quickly go through a list of the different programs and the different places that people can find you?

00:50:02.757 --> 00:50:03.059
Sure.

00:50:03.059 --> 00:50:10.425
So uh-request show the Wild and the Innocent with Jim Rotolo is Friday 6 East, 3 West.

00:50:10.425 --> 00:50:12.963
We do that for two hours every Friday.

00:50:12.963 --> 00:50:14.340
It's a lot of fun.

00:50:14.340 --> 00:50:20.443
You call in at 877-70-BRUCE, which is 782-702-70.

00:50:20.443 --> 00:50:21.005
Yeah, 8.

00:50:21.005 --> 00:50:28.603
I only say it every day 877-702-7823.

00:50:28.603 --> 00:50:29.405
That's a lot of fun.

00:50:30.315 --> 00:50:36.668
I have a show called Growing Up where I sit down and have a conversation with Bruce's more notable fans.

00:50:36.668 --> 00:50:38.862
I just talked with Allison Williams.

00:50:38.862 --> 00:50:41.679
We had a great conversation that's going to be coming up soon.

00:50:41.679 --> 00:50:53.164
I talked with Penn Jillette, ralph Macchio, judd Apatow All hardcore Bruce fans, and that's always fun, talking with them, and I get a little bit of their story as well Along the way.

00:50:53.164 --> 00:50:56.724
So that you can find It'll be.

00:50:56.724 --> 00:50:59.784
All those shows are on demand on the SXM app.

00:50:59.784 --> 00:51:03.320
Just search E Street Radio and you'll find the listings there.

00:51:03.320 --> 00:51:12.507
And then you can hear me a weekdays nine to noon East and also five to eight East and, uh, everything else that comes along the way.

00:51:12.507 --> 00:51:23.737
I'll let you guys know Jim Rotolo on Instagram, at Jim Rotolo on Twitter, and the wild and the innocent with Jim Rotolo is the show's Facebook page and you can always find me on Facebook as Jim Rotolo.

00:51:24.519 --> 00:51:25.824
Awesome and uh.

00:51:25.824 --> 00:51:35.989
The one question I have to ask you as the resident Bruce fan on this program yes, you may or may not air before the first show coming up in Tampa.

00:51:35.989 --> 00:51:41.467
Do you have a prediction for what the first show or first song of the tour is going to be?

00:51:41.954 --> 00:51:45.561
It's funny you ask that, Larry, because that was a topic a few weeks ago.

00:51:45.561 --> 00:51:54.862
So I will tell you what I think the opening, and not only will I tell you what the song is, I'm going to give you the scenario of how it's going to open.

00:51:54.882 --> 00:52:02.438
This is in my own little warped mind, and the best part about this is that it might air after things happen, so we get to see if you're right.

00:52:02.458 --> 00:52:03.943
Right, I could be, completely, not even close.

00:52:06.295 --> 00:52:06.637
Do we want to?

00:52:06.657 --> 00:52:07.298
put money on this?

00:52:07.298 --> 00:52:07.981
No, but who knows?

00:52:07.981 --> 00:52:09.980
So here's what I'm thinking.

00:52:09.980 --> 00:52:15.079
Right, the crowd's there, Everybody's, you know, super high and can't wait for this.

00:52:15.079 --> 00:52:20.862
You know show, the walk-on music's happening.

00:52:20.862 --> 00:52:26.980
Lights go down, Arena's completely dark Band takes the stage.

00:52:26.980 --> 00:52:30.521
You can kind of see them, but you can't they all get to their spots.

00:52:30.521 --> 00:52:38.717
You hear the opening drums, the crowds building up, building up, and then all the lights go on and you hear.

00:52:38.717 --> 00:52:41.324
You see Bruce sing the opening lines.

00:52:41.324 --> 00:52:44.001
I hear the sound of your guitar.

00:52:44.001 --> 00:52:48.425
Ghost will be the first song Of the tour.

00:52:48.686 --> 00:52:50.641
Okay, that has been my thought too.

00:52:50.641 --> 00:52:56.097
I think it will be something from that album, and what else would it be other than Ghosts, burn and Train?

00:52:56.199 --> 00:52:58.039
possibly I love that song.

00:52:58.039 --> 00:52:59.322
Me too Love that song.

00:52:59.322 --> 00:53:03.686
Yeah, we start the Wild and the Innocent every week with that.

00:53:03.686 --> 00:53:07.583
I've made that song sort of the unofficial theme of the show.

00:53:07.583 --> 00:53:09.947
Love it, look at you two.

00:53:09.947 --> 00:53:10.655
So.

00:53:10.695 --> 00:53:12.824
Ghost is the prediction.

00:53:12.824 --> 00:53:15.744
That's my prediction, yes, okay.

00:53:15.744 --> 00:53:21.824
Well, we will circle back around and find out whether or not you called it right very, very soon.

00:53:22.786 --> 00:53:25.530
All right, I hope so With that thank you, thank you.

00:53:25.635 --> 00:53:26.800
Thank you for joining us, jim.

00:53:27.597 --> 00:53:32.518
thank you guys, it's great to talk with you and hopefully we'll get together get a beer, let's get some drinks.

00:53:32.539 --> 00:53:33.061
Yeah, we gotta.

00:53:33.061 --> 00:53:35.813
We gotta get together real soon, jimmy all right, sounds good guys.

00:53:35.833 --> 00:53:38.422
Thanks again for having me all right, thank you for coming on.

00:53:38.422 --> 00:53:42.496
Take care well, uh, another great conversation for us.

00:53:42.496 --> 00:53:48.677
Thank you so much to to jim for joining us and for all the Springsteen fans out there.

00:53:48.677 --> 00:53:54.699
I think we're going to hold him accountable and we're going to come back around to see whether or not he gets his prediction of ghosts right.

00:53:54.699 --> 00:54:02.320
My guess is that he is, so I guess we'll see, but I'm obviously very excited for the tour.

00:54:02.862 --> 00:54:04.586
I'm telling you, you guys should put money on it.

00:54:04.735 --> 00:54:05.778
We should put money on this.

00:54:05.778 --> 00:54:07.384
I'm inside of a text right now.

00:54:09.036 --> 00:54:09.759
Yeah, jim is.

00:54:09.759 --> 00:54:10.902
He's impressive, isn't he?

00:54:10.902 --> 00:54:12.762
I mean, we talked about what a great guy he is.

00:54:12.762 --> 00:54:15.925
I heard so many lessons in this interview.

00:54:15.925 --> 00:54:19.144
You know he wasn't afraid to pound the pavement to look for a job.

00:54:19.144 --> 00:54:21.677
I mean, nowadays you would do that differently.

00:54:21.677 --> 00:54:24.722
It'd be internet, it would be contacts, linkedin, things like that.

00:54:24.722 --> 00:54:30.610
But man, he just had this perseverance that he deserves everything he gets at this point in his life.

00:54:30.610 --> 00:54:45.382
Because here's a guy who kind of was giving it away for free, teaching other people how to be great radio talk show hosts, and he had the gumption, the wherewithal to kind of step back, step away, reassess and reinvent himself.

00:54:45.382 --> 00:54:59.108
And I think that's impressive when you talk about a career path, because he already had his foot in the door but was smart enough to take a step back and and look at it from a different perspective, and I think that's a great way to go and it's a, it's a real lesson there for you.

00:54:59.429 --> 00:55:04.365
The one thing I was very surprised that he said was you know that that there are things he would change, right?

00:55:04.365 --> 00:55:09.369
I mean, we've talked to a lot of people thus far and most of them say you know, I really wouldn't change much.

00:55:09.369 --> 00:55:10.510
I really wouldn't change much of anything.

00:55:10.510 --> 00:55:16.101
But he said, yeah, I think there are changes that I think I would make, and one of them would be where I went to school.

00:55:16.101 --> 00:55:17.543
He's absolutely right.

00:55:17.925 --> 00:55:26.007
There are three schools in this area, three or four schools in this area where there is an alumni base which has deep roots in media in this area.

00:55:26.007 --> 00:55:33.983
I went to one of them and that was one of the reasons why I went into the business, because I knew there were people there who could get you in the door.

00:55:33.983 --> 00:55:39.664
So what he did in a lot of ways is pretty remarkable being able to bang the door down and get his foot in the door.

00:55:39.664 --> 00:55:47.148
Actually, you know what Jim Rotolo is a really good guy, but what he really is is a guy who shows a lot of perseverance.

00:55:47.148 --> 00:55:49.882
There aren't a lot of people who have a lot of spirit to do that.

00:55:49.882 --> 00:56:00.889
I have all kinds of respect for Jim Rotolo and what he's done, because he really has turned himself into one of the better broadcasters in this industry, being a good guy and staying true to who he is.

00:56:01.530 --> 00:56:08.458
For sure there's something to be said for keep moving your feet, keep going, et cetera, et cetera, and things will break your way.

00:56:08.458 --> 00:56:10.840
And that certainly happened for Jim.

00:56:10.840 --> 00:56:14.262
He made this opportunity happen for himself by just keeping at it.

00:56:14.262 --> 00:56:17.945
Conversation was the sense of responsibility, in a way, that he has for this Springsteen community.

00:56:17.945 --> 00:56:45.784
I mean, he's in a very unique place where he's a facilitator and he's sort of like this glue between all these different people who have such a love and a passion for Springsteen and his music and he's in a unique spot that very few people are in.

00:56:45.784 --> 00:56:52.114
So to hear that perspective and to hear what that's like to me I found very, very interesting.

00:56:52.476 --> 00:56:53.478
I think that's a great point.

00:56:53.478 --> 00:57:05.597
I'm glad you brought it up and I also think you know taking a concept, the whole, you know tailgating concept right for this venue and kind of having that vision.

00:57:05.597 --> 00:57:08.766
I think is super interesting that that was his vision.

00:57:08.766 --> 00:57:11.960
I never would have considered that, but now it all makes sense.

00:57:11.960 --> 00:57:20.655
That he said it gives you the real story right, having that tailgating vision of how can we all get ready and get amped up for this together and then bringing it to fruition.

00:57:20.655 --> 00:57:25.894
I think it says a lot about who he is and how he was able to take a vision and make it reality.

00:57:25.894 --> 00:57:30.670
You about who he is and how he was able to take a vision and make it reality you know, there is one question I did want to ask which I never had a chance.

00:57:30.690 --> 00:57:34.818
You wonder what it was go.

00:57:34.838 --> 00:57:36.702
What is it so I forget?

00:57:36.702 --> 00:57:38.083
Someone say something yeah.

00:57:39.045 --> 00:57:44.242
So the question is how many times have you met bruce down the jersey shore?

00:57:44.262 --> 00:57:57.081
during this time of year because I'm telling you there are so many pictures of people from jersey who meet this guy down the shore and it is down the shore, I'm saying it correct, I'm saying it correctly.

00:57:57.081 --> 00:58:08.257
There are so many people who meet bruce down the shore this time of year because he's there this time of year walking, walking down the jersey shores, because nobody's around, he's not gonna get, he's not gonna get mobbed.

00:58:08.257 --> 00:58:14.681
And it's unbelievable how many pictures you'll see of bruce fans or just you know, people from jersey etc.

00:58:14.681 --> 00:58:20.762
Who put up pictures up on social media of just meeting bruce, just randomly, just meeting him.

00:58:20.762 --> 00:58:22.164
It's unbelievable.

00:58:22.164 --> 00:58:24.717
He's so accessible, he's so accessible to his fans.

00:58:24.717 --> 00:58:27.105
He, he is Jersey through and through.

00:58:27.125 --> 00:58:33.885
That's why I love the guy, and I think Jim hit on one of Larry Samuel's biggest dreams, which is to share a turkey sandwich with.

00:58:34.045 --> 00:58:36.108
Bruce Springsteen no, no, no.

00:58:36.108 --> 00:58:39.588
His dream is to have the bat phone number.

00:58:39.628 --> 00:58:40.693
He wants the bat phone.

00:58:40.893 --> 00:58:52.278
That's right, that was going to be my question If he's on air, is there like a bat phone in the corner of the studio?

00:58:52.278 --> 00:58:55.847
Or if it rings, you know it's Bruce and you've done something wrong and uh-oh, you got to work out whatever your problem is.

00:58:55.847 --> 00:58:56.951
So, anyway, with that, you know, jim.

00:58:56.951 --> 00:58:59.016
Thank you so much for joining us today.

00:58:59.016 --> 00:59:00.880
What an incredible conversation.

00:59:00.880 --> 00:59:08.710
On behalf of Tushar Saxena, larry Shea and me, larry Samuels, thank you again for joining this episode of no Wrong Choices.

00:59:08.710 --> 00:59:18.286
If, after listening, you've thought of someone who could be a great guest, please let us know by sending us a note via the contact page of our website at norongchoicescom.

00:59:18.286 --> 00:59:25.880
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00:59:25.880 --> 00:59:31.068
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00:59:31.068 --> 00:59:35.065
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00:59:35.065 --> 00:59:37.422
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00:59:37.422 --> 00:59:46.507
Before then, always remember there are no wrong choices on the road to success, only opportunities, because we learn from every experience.

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